~CRYSTAL P.O.V
Everyone started freaking out once the lights went out. "Panic, panic, panic, panic, panic, panic," Stampy yelled, panicking.
"What just happened?" Lizzie questioned.
"Stampy! Pull yourself together!" Dan scolded.
"Panic, panic, panic, panic, panic, panic," Stampy continued to shout.
"I can't see!" Lizzie yelled.
"Sparklez!" Dan cried.
"Someone find the lights! Quick!" Jesse shouted.
"And turn them on!" I agreed.
Suddenly, the lights came back on but the room was covered in a blue glow (except for the fireplace). The glowstone was replaced with glowing blue pumpkins and the painting also changed from a baby zombie riding a chicken to the guy I saw in the window earlier, holding an axe.
"Greetings. 'Adventurers.' I... AM THE WHITE PUMPKINS!" a voice rang out across the room.
We heard a poof noise and saw Sparklez's inventory appear on top of the sand.
"One of you has the treasure I desire and I will not rest until it is mine," the White Pumpkin continued as the sand fell down the hole, taking Sparklez's stuff with it.
"Even if I have to resort..." the White Pumpkin trailed off as the lights went out.
"TO MURDER!"
The lights turned on as the lighting flashed out, revealing the painting to be gone and the White Pumpkin to be there instead.
"More panicking! More panicking!" Stampy cried.
"White Pumpkin?!" Lizzie shouted.
"I'm too cute to die!" Cassie yelled, backing up slightly.
The lights went back off, and after a few seconds, they turned back on with the lighting flashing outside and the White Pumpkin painting was back.
"They killed Sparklez! They killed Sparklez!" Dan shouted, his hair now back to brown.
Stampy stuttered a bunch of gibberish, going to run around the room, waving his arms in the air.
"W-Whoa! Hang on! Hang on!" Lukas cried, trying to calm everyone down.
"This is awful! Terrible!" Stacy shouted, backing away in fear.
"Who was that guy?" Cassie questioned.
"And there's no such thing as 'White Pumpkins,'" Dan denied as Stampy ran back over.
"Tell that to all the white pumpkins hanging all over the place!" Stampy pointed out/yelled, skidding to a stop in front of Stacy and Cassie.
Stampy went to do another lap of the room, with Dan letting out a few yelps and following after him.
Cassie sat down, pulling her legs to her chest, rocking herself back and forth while saying. "I don't like it! I really don't!"
I took a step forward. "I actually saw him in the window when we first got here," I informed them.
Cassie looked at us in both shock and fear. "You mean he's been in here the whole time?!" she exclaimed. "I am so getting out of here,"
She got up, pushing past Stact, who let up a gasp.
Winslow meowed, running after his master.
The five of us rushed to where Dan, Stampy, Stacy, and Cassie were before everyone started freaking out. "So much for a nice dinner party..." Petra commented.
"Augh! Oh no!" we heard Cassie scream, causing us to freeze.
"I don't like the sound of that," Ivor commented as we ran towards the doors.
Jesse kicked the door to the main hall open while Lukas, Petra, and I posed. We looked over and saw Cassie backing away from a very open front door while Winslow hissed.
"Shut the door! Shut the door!" Jesse shouted, running over to Cassie.
He pushed her out of the way, properly looking at the zombies, who made their way toward them. Jesse spotted a lever next to the door, rushed over, and pulled it down.
The door slammed shut a second later.
Lukas, Petra, Ivor, and I rushed over to check if they were okay. Cassie picked up Winslow. "C'mere Winslow. Don't be scared," she whispered before she looked at Jesse. "So we're stuck in here. And if we're stuck in here... We're all doomed!"
I looked back and saw Dan, Lizzie, and Stacy walking out into the main hall, with Stampy peeking out from behind the corner.
~~~~~~
We all gathered together to discuss what had just happened. Our group was on one side while Cassie, Winslow, Dan, Lizzie, and Stacy were opposite us with Stampy pacing in a circle in the middle.
"I thought I heard Sparklez say something about a flint & steel?" Stacy pointed out.
Stampy stopped, turning to look at her. "Oh, please don't bring that up again," he told her while I noticed Lukas walk away to look at something.
"Well, obviously TorqueDawg didn't steal it," Lizzie concluded.
"Okay, but WHO then?" Dan questioned.
"Uh, Chrissy? Jesse?"
Jesse and I looked back to see Lukas motioning us to where he was standing. We walked over and stood close by, looking where he was looking.
It was the portraits of TorqueDawg, Captain Sparklez, and Ivor.
TorqueDawg's one was already crossed out and Sparklez's one was now as well... Oh, God.
Petra and Ivor walked over to get a closer look.
"Well," Ivor muttered, causing the four of us to look at him. "I guess I'm next then,"
Petra shook her head. "Nope. Not happening," she denied.
I stepped forward, setting my hands on my hips. "Don't worry, Ivor child. We'll protect you," I reassured him.
Ivor looked at me gratefully. "I appreciate that, Crystal. I just hope that this 'White Pumpkin' isn't beyond all of our abilities,"
"Well, I'm sure there's a pretty logical explanation for how the White Pumpkin is doing all this. I mean, the whole place has gotta be rigged with traps, right? TorqueDawg - trap. Sparklez - trap," Lukas concluded, turning to me.
"Yeah. We need to find out what makes these traps tick," I agreed.
The others nodded, agreeing to the plan. We walked to stand in front of the open doors that led into the dining room.
"All right, children. I'm going to investigate that dining room," I informed them.
"Cool. I'll keep those guys in the hall for now so I can keep an eye on everyone," Petra said, looking over to Jesse. "Jess, can you help me out?"
Jesse blushed, nodding after a few seconds. "Y-Yeah, sure,"
"An excellent idea. Don't want them messing up the crime scene," Ivor agreed, crossing his hands.
Lukas turned to me, setting a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sticking with you, Crystal. Doesn't seem safe to wander off alone,"
I blushed, giving him a closed-eyed smile. "Thanks, Luke," I thanked.
The two of us walked into the dining room as we heard Ivor yell. "Okay people, clear out! This is a crime scene!"
Lukas and I stood in the dining room, looking around the scene in front of us. "Okay... How are you doing this, White Pumpkin?" I wondered as Lukas closed the doors.
He walked back over to me. "There has to be a mechanism to set everything off for this trap," Lukas guessed as we walked around the right side of the room to get to the trap.
"The question is: How and where," I agreed.
Stopping in front of the trap, I looked up at the White Pumpkin portrait. "This looks like the exact spot where the White Pumpkin appeared. But now... Just a portrait," I muttered just for Lukas to hear.
"Unless..." Lukas trailed off, hinting toward something.
I caught on quickly, causing me to smirk. I punched the portrait and it broke, revealing the White Pumpkin... But it wasn't him.
"It's just... A costume. On armor stand, with a jukebox for the voice," I commented, crossing my arms.
"But no sign of how it was triggered... Wow. The White Pumpkin must have some amazing redstone skills to rig up something like this. But why?" Lukas commented/questioned. "Must've taken a lot of work to rig up..."
"It could've possibly been a diversion from whatever was going on in the room at the time. Like, whatever activated it could be in here," I suggested.
Lukas raised an eyebrow. "What, Crystal, do you think the White Pumpkin was in the room with us?" he asked.
"Ossibly, Luke... Possibly..." I mumbled before I looked near my feet, spotting the sand trap. "Man. Poor Sparklez,"
"Crushed under sand... Ugh," he shivered. "Really nasty way to go,"
"Now, we just got to figure out how the trap was activated," I mumbled, looking back behind us.
"Let's take a look around," Lukas suggested, to which I hummed in agreement.
We spent the next minute looking around the room but came back with nothing. Then we came back to look at the table to see if we could find anything.
"Okay, so this was the dining table where we all gathered together right before..." I trailed off, the two of us stopping when we spotted a button.
"That's got to be what activated the trap," Lukas commented as we kneeled down in front of the button.
"Okay, let's give this a shot..." I commented, pushing the button.
The head chair went back like before as sand dropped down. "Just like before-!" Lukas stated as we stood up, the lights going off.
"Greetings. 'Adventurers.' I... AM THE WHITE PUMPKINS!" the jukebox played.
Lukas and I walked over to it. "Yep. Just like before," he muttered while he crossed his arms with a glare.
"One of you has the treasure I desire and I will not rest until it is mine. Even if I have to resort..." the jukebox played before the lights turned off.
"TO MURDER!" the jukebox finished as the lighting flashed outside, the lights turning on.
Lukas and I looked at each other, nodding to confirm we figured it out.
"Sis!"
"Lukas!"
We turned around to see Petra and Jesse kicking down the door, holding their swords as the others followed in behind.
Petra and Jesse joined us while Stampy yelled. "He's back! The White Pumpkin's back!"
I held up my hands. "Stay calm everyone, don't worry. It's just a dummy. A White Pumpkin costume on an armor stand," I explained, pointing to the armor stand behind Lukas and me.
"What? Why?" Dan questioned, to which I know noticed he has purple hair now.
I walked over to the group, who stood close to the fireplace. "The trap that killed Sparklez, the whole show with the White Pumpkin... It was all triggered by a button on the table," I explained to them.
"But... What does that mean?" Lizzie questioned.
Stacy shuddered. "I am so creeped out right now," she commented.
"Understandably!" Stampy agreed.
Petra, Jesse, and Lukas walked over and stood beside me. "It means that we can figure out the White Pumpkin's identity - whoever had access to the button must be him," I explained.
"Wait! So you're saying that the White Pumpkin..." Stampy trailed off, looking between Stacy and Dan. "IS one of us?!"
"That's right, Mr. Stampy. One of us... Is a murderer," I confirmed.
Just as I finished my sentence, lightning flashed outside, causing us all to jump slightly.
"And he sat right... Here!"
We looked over and saw Ivor kneeling down in front of a different button.
"Wait, but that's not where Crystal found the button before--!"
I looked back at Lukas. "There's more than one?! Ugh, why did I think this would be easy..." I exclaimed, muttering the second half to myself.
"I'll see if I can find all of them," Lukas said, walking off to find the rest.
Petra, Jesse, and I walked over to the right side of the room as Ivor ran over from the other side. Lukas, on the other hand, used arrows to stab the table to mark where the buttons were.
"Nice work, sis," Jesse complemented as the four of us met in the middle.
"Yes, I must say I'm relieved to know that there's a logical explanation for what the White Pumpkin's been doing all of this..." Ivor agreed/commented.
"So what now? Feels like we've made some good progress so fair though, right?" Petra questioned.
"We need to pull together all our evidence and see how it connects. That tipped arrow means the White Pumpkin is a master brewer, and the traps show that he's a real redstone expert... Well, gang. I know I should've said it a while ago, but it looks like we've got a mystery on our hands," I explained.
"Scooby-Doo...? Really?" Jesse questioned as he crossed his arms.
"What? It's fitting," I defended.
"What's Scooby-Doo?" Petra questioned.
Jesse and I snapped our heads to her. "Nothing!" the two of us said in unison, causing Petra to hold up her hands in surrender, taking a step back.
Lukas walked back over to us after placing the arrows down, marking where the buttons were.
I smiled at him. "Thanks, Lukas," I thanked him before starting to pace. "If you could all please take the same seat you were at before... Four of your seats are marked - these are the seats that had a button to activate the trap,"
As I explained, I noticed four people stand at their seats while the others backed away.
"That means that the White Pumpkin could only be Dan, Stampy, Lizzie, or... Or Jesse," I finished, pausing when it came to my brother.
Lizzie looked at me with anger. "Wait, you're accusing us?! Wait, what!?" she exclaimed.
"I echo her sentiment exactly! I didn't even see a button!" Stampy stated.
"Me neither!" Dan agreed.
"This is crazy!" Cassie shouted.
I paused, stopping to look at them. "Hey, hey, hold on, hold on. I'm not accusing anyone... Yet," I told them.
"Sure sounds like you're accusing us, stranger. And I don't care for it!" Stampy stated.
I glanced over to Lukas, nodding to my left. He nodded, understanding what I meant.
We walked around to the other side.
"I'm taking charge now, and with the help of my partner, we're gonna get to the bottom of this. I want everyone separated - We're gonna talk to each suspect one by one so we can find out who's telling the truth... And whose lying," I explained as Lukas and I stopped in front of Cassie.
We turned around, walking back the other way. "Crystal and I have got a lot of questions and we want nice little matching answers for each and every one of them. Understand me?" Lukas asked, looking at Stacy.
"Loud and clear," Stacy gave a salute.
"Yes. Crystal clear," Stampy said, causing us to look at him with raised eyebrows. His eyes widened. "No pun intended,"
Petra walked up to the two of us. "Who are you two gonna interrogate first?"
Lukas and I glanced at each other, thinking about who we were gonna interrogate.
~~~
And that was a wrap for this chapter.
Just to let you know, I have almost finished Episode 6, but I'm still gonna continue the same release schedule I've been going on, which it's once a month.
Also yes, in every episode, there will be a shorter chapter because it's easy for me to get out there.
Anyway, I still hope you enjoy this chapter. (Also the best part of the actual episode is Stampy in the dining room. He is so funny in this)
The next chapter should be out between the 5th-10th of June.
But anyway, for now, keep dancing in the moonlight and keep making the UwU, bye.